Charles Gilbert

Chargil, Imagil, Atgil, Mac K.B., Aagg

(1906 - 2000, Belgium)

Charles Gilbert was a Belgian comic artist, who mostly worked under the pen name Chargil, but he also used the pen names Imagil, At-Gil (Atelier Gil), Mac K.B., Gil and Aagg. Born in Brussels, he was a pupil of Auguste Mambour, the famous anti-semitic artist from Liège. He founded his own Atelier des Arts Graphiques in the 1930s, that produced artwork for several children's magazines in the 1940s. He was present in Bravo with 'L'Invention du Professeur Bombix' and 'Charmerelle, reine des bois' in 1942, and also in Nine with 'Les Frasques de Plume et Pataquès' and 'Les Aventures de Tip et Top' (signed G.o.). His atelier created 'Mustang', 'Les Tribulations d'Isodore la Poisse' and 'Le Secret de l'Île' for Wrill. A book collection of 'Mustang' was published in 1947. Other magazines that published work by Atelier Gil during the war were Lutin and Stop ('La Grande Aventure').

Tip et Top, signed G.o (Nine, 27 January 1944)

He was the art editor of Grand Coeur since the start in 1945. He created a great number of series for this magazine, including 'Dans les Griffes de la Gestapo', 'Cric & Cie' (gag pages), 'Pitchou détective' and 'L'île des Gisants'. He additionally appeared in Petits Belges between 1946 and 1956 with 'Jim, reporter' (1946), 'Mixy Boy' (with Madeleine Charlier), 'Fille du Pilote' (1949), 'Les Voleurs de Bébés" (1950), 'Les pages de Mwamga' (1952), 'L'Île X' (1954), 'Le puits qui pleure' (1955), and 'L'Île Perroquet' (1956, with Anjo). His style has a strong resemblance with modern artists like Petit-Roulet and Avril.